无法拒绝的酒精，会要了你的命吗？

无法拒绝的酒精，会要了你的命吗？

眼看圣诞节、春节将至，越来越多的应酬无法推脱，有多少人在节日里是连轴转的“醉生梦死”？这些你无法拒绝、或是自己中意的酒精摄入，会要了你的命吗？喝多少才是安全的？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

centrepiece中心装饰品['sentəpi:s]

strain菌株；拉紧；负担[streɪn]

pricier价格高的，昂贵的

tipple酒；烈酒['tɪp(ə)l]

poison放毒于；败坏['pɒɪz(ə)n]

contradiction矛盾；否认[kɒntrə'dɪkʃ(ə)n]

impetus动力；促进['ɪmpɪtəs]

oesophagus食道[ɪ'sɒfəgəs]

epidemiological流行病学的['ɛpɪ,dimɪr'lɑdʒɪkl]

culprit犯人，罪犯['kʌlprɪt]

acetaldehyde乙醛；醋醛[,æsɪt'ældɪhaɪd]

emulate仿真；模仿['emjʊleɪt]

reckon测算，估计['rek(ə)n]

whiff吸；喷出[wɪf]

Will Christmas – and all the booze – kill you this year?（809 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

Someone has got it in for the British 2016 Christmas dinner. The centrepiece of the banquet,the free-range turkey,will have spent its final weeks stuck inside on government orders after a horrid strain of bird flu was detected in mainland Europe. Thanks to the weaker pound,sugar and other imported ingredients for Christmas puddings have become pricier.

Should you wish to console yourself with a tipple,the official consensus is that you are poisoning yourself. In January this year,drinking guidelines were revised downwards to reflect growing evidence about the toxicity of alcohol.

Dame Sally Davies,England’s chief medical officer,recommended that men and women should not exceed 14 units a week（about a bottle and a half of wine),and that the units should be spread out over at least three days rather than saved for a weekend binge.

There is now no such thing as“safe”drinking,because even small amounts can cause harm. Instead,sticking to the guidelines reduces your risk of dying from an alcohol-related condition to one per cent. The popular notion that drinking red wine benefits the heart has also been abandoned; a review of the evidence showed this applied only to women over 55.

I have already written about the contradiction involved in dishing out guidelines while simultaneously saying there are no safe limits. It is also peculiar that men and women are now subject to exactly the same limits,a point picked up in a thorough analysis by the Stats Guy,who remains sceptical about the dangers of moderate drinking.

One impetus behind the revision,however,seems to be the body of evidence pointing to alcohol as a carcinogen. Cancer-causing substances are classified into five groups by the International Agency for Research on Cancer（IARC),which is part of the World Health Organisation. Group one comprises the known villains — substances for which the evidence base is strong enough for scientists to state that they are indeed implicated in cancer.

Alcohol falls into group one — along with such nasties as diesel fumes,plutonium,tobacco（including smokeless) and X-rays. That doesn’t mean that they are all equivalently carcinogenic — just that the evidence points one way,particularly for cancers of the head and neck,oesophagus,liver and breast. Epidemiological studies tend to indicate that cancer risk is greatest among the heaviest drinkers; such dose-response relationships add credibility to the inference.

One study,published in the journal Addiction,suggested that alcohol was a culprit in at least seven types of cancer and potentially accounted for almost 6 per cent of cancers worldwide.

The mechanism by which alcohol raises cancer risk is unclear. We know,though,that the body breaks it down into acetaldehyde,which can cause genetic mutations. Such mutations prefigure tumour growth.

When Public Health England released another report on alcohol this month,it painted a portrait of a nation awash with cheap booze. In 2008,we downed 567m litres,up 42 per cent from 1980（although volumes have since declined); 10m people are indulging in a way that harms their health; in the 15-49 age group alcohol is the leading risk factor for ill-health,early death and disability,and alcohol has become cheaper,stronger and more attractive to women consumers. A separate report,by the Nuffield Trust,reveals that more than a million hospital admissions each year are due to alcohol-related diagnoses.

This is why most health experts advocate a minimum unit price for alcohol,an idea that was once considered by ministers in England and later rejected,although it has been adopted in Scotland.

A few years ago,I began recognising myself in the descriptions of middle-class women who,without quite realising it,were overconsuming.

Today,there are several tricks I employ to squeeze more pleasure from less booze. This is not a hard and fast rule but Monday to Thursday are dry nights. I no longer buy boxes of wine — it makes topping up too easy. I favour a small glass — it is less dispiriting and more elegant to sip from a full thimble than from an empty bucket and,to be honest,a glass feels like a glass.

Many of these suggestions are about breaking habits,which is hard and requires motivation. Here were my reasons: health,vanity（a large glass of wine can be as calorific as cake) and,most importantly,to be a good role model. Children learn by example — and I don’t think wine-as-stress-reliever is a particularly marvellous coping strategy for kids to emulate.

I would never give up — abstinence carries the whiff of joylessness — and I reckon I’m only just within the 14-unit weekly allowance. But alcohol feels a little less like a habit and more like a treat. A couple of glasses of bubbly to kick off a celebration,or a lovely Sauternes to accompany that expensive Christmas pudding? I’ll definitely drink to that.